


Hold The Moonlight In Your Hands

by absolute-worst-idea (cxptained)



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Engagement, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Skinny Dipping, lake house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26666023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cxptained/pseuds/absolute-worst-idea
Summary: “Come on.” Henry tells him, tugging him to his feet and suddenly time is repeating itself.They sneak through the long grass, past the same PPO’s that snooze by the front door, before taking off at a run down that very same pier.“What are you doing?” Alex yells out, laughing as they come to the same halt as before, right under the brilliant night sky. The same stars look down on them. The same moon lights up their path, lights up Henry’s face, lights up his eyes and his smile.“I’m doing this right!” Henry says. There’s a lightness to his voice, a sparkle in perfect blue hues and Alex’s chest lifts just as it had done a year ago.----------The group find themselves back at the lake house, and Henry wants to make right that disastrous night with a marriage proposal that will change Henry and Alex's lives forever.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 21
Kudos: 254





	Hold The Moonlight In Your Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Hello once again! This fic was requested by an anon on Tumblr who requested Henry proposing!! I already had an idea for something I wanted to do with this particular concept and honestly a proposal just fit right in so I was super happy about this request, thank you so much!
> 
> Enjoy!

It’s been a year since the semi-disastrous trip to the lake house.

Alex invites Henry again. Henry says yes. Pez and Bea have come this year and Alex can see something shine in his dad’s face when he looks at them all there; smiling and happy. He thinks it’s pride. A pride that his son has friends.

Alex wonders if he should be offended. 

_ “The Super Six!” _ His dad had exclaimed when the two cars turned up at the house. 

They needed two cars this year. Henry, Alex and Bea in one, Nora, Pez and June in the other. They’d tried to cram six people into one, but they’d gotten no further than the interstate before Nora was squealing that there was a suitcase squashing her foot and Alex was yelling about how he can’t drive with Henry’s elbow in his ribs the entire way. 

So they’d turned around swiftly, picked up a second car and gone on their way - significantly more comfortable than before. 

The days were just as fun as Alex had remembered. His dad cooks barbecue and Alex watches Pez try to help and fail miserably. 

Bea sits by the side of the lake, shades covering her face as she reads her book. Henry splashes her on purpose until she gives up and chases him through the water. There’s a smile on Henry’s face, the kind that makes Alex’s heart flutter as he watches his boyfriend get to indulge the childish whims with his sister that he doubts they were ever allowed to enjoy as children. 

Nora and June decide to go snorkelling though they all know they’ve never found anything too exotic before. 

_ “You never know, Alex.”  _ Nora had said when Alex pointed out that fact. He backed off then, hands in the air in a mock surrender to go and have a cannonball contest off the dock with Pez, who’d finally been banished from the kitchen. 

They drink.

They laugh.

And when Alex looks at Henry through the haze of evening dusk and thinks about how much he loves him, there is no anxiety there. Henry loves him back, and all is well with the world. 

The night falls and one by one, they all pick themselves up and head for the beds. 

Alex gets to drag Henry into his own bunk that night. Maybe some of that anxiety from the year before has lasted, because Alex’s limbs curl tightly around his boyfriend. He clutches at Henry’s arm and holds him close to his body. Henry doesn’t get to sneak off this time.

“Alex?” Henry whispers an hour or so later. “You awake?”

An eye cracks open and he can see the soft outline of Henry’s face in the moonlight. 

“Yeah…” He murmurs.

Henry takes his hand and Alex feels his legs swing out of the bunk. 

“Come on.” Henry tells him, tugging him to his feet and suddenly time is repeating itself. 

They sneak through the long grass, past the same PPO’s that snooze by the front door, before taking off at a run down that very same pier. 

“What are you  _ doing?” _ Alex yells out, laughing as they come to the same halt as before, right under the brilliant night sky. The same stars look down on them. The same moon lights up their path, lights up Henry’s face, lights up his eyes and his smile.

“I’m doing this right!” Henry says. There’s a lightness to his voice, a sparkle in perfect blue hues and Alex’s chest lifts just as it had done a year ago. 

Hope, young love, and adoration. 

They strip right there, wandering hands helping each other rather than stick to their own clothes and Alex cries out a laugh when Henry’s hands tug down his underwear. Slender fingers brush across Alex’s hip and if he wasn’t standing in full view of the house down the way he’d pull Henry in close and kiss him till no breath was left in his lungs.

It all belongs to Henry. Everything he is belongs to Henry. 

While Alex is lost in fantasy, Henry jumps in first. It’s messy, nothing like the perfect swan dive all too burned into his memory from the year before, water spraying up from the surface of the lake and catching Alex’s skin. He shivers, glancing down incredulously from the dock and watching Henry run his fingers through somehow perfect wet hair.

“Are you just going to stand there all day?” Henry asks, his shoulders bobbing up and down with the gentle movements of the lake. “Not that I’m complaining about the view.” He says, “Very… striking.” A smirk pulls over his features and Alex knows that just won’t do. 

He jumps. 

His body lands part-way on top of Henry’s, pushing them both down under the water in a tangle of limbs. They tussle for a few minutes, arms poking legs, feet catching sides. Alex is laughing too hard when he surfaces and almost swallows a mouthful, spluttering as he clings to Henry’s body for support. 

After a moment they calm. The water becomes gentle around them, no longer lapping furiously at the legs of the pier. Their own cries and yells and laughter quieten until all that can be heard are the night animals of Texas, going about their lives. 

“You are…” Henry whispers into the silence, their faces inches apart.

“A menace?” Alex fills softly. Henry smiles that smile only meant for him. His eyes flick up and down, glancing Alex’s lips before meeting his gaze once again. The conversation from a year ago is stuck in both of their minds, word for word. It’s ingrained into their memories like a nightmare you can’t shake loose.

Alex swallows down tangible nerves.

“Yes.” Henry says, his voice equally soft, equally low. 

Henry pulls him in for a kiss. His hand slides across the back of Alex’s head and all at once Alex melts. His eyes flicker shut, his lips part in expectation and Henry meets the warm as promised. Henry’s fingers disappear into his hair and Alex’s hand comes up to meet cheekbones.

Below the surface their legs wrap together, Alex hooking one around Henry’s waist to keep them close.

When they pull back, Alex almost doesn’t want to. It’s pulling back last time that made this all go so wrong. It’s not like that now, but the lake feels like the dread of losing Henry. It could swallow him whole and drown him. 

“I’m sorry.” Henry says, his voice still low and quiet. Alex can hear shame in his tone and the leg wrapped around his waist holds him tighter.

“Sweetheart, no…” Alex pushes back. He watches Henry beneath the silvery light of the moon; every feature, every emotion accentuated tenfold. 

Alex’s thumb caresses Henry’s cheek as Henry looks down to the depths of the water, watching the way his feet dance to keep them afloat.

“No, I am.” Henry says, his gaze coming back up to meet Alex’s with an insistence. Alex lets it push him in any direction it needs.

“Okay.” Alex says, unsure of where this is going. “I think I’m already far past forgiving you though, don’t you?” 

Henry laughs weakly. “I know.” He nods. “But I am sorry because last year you brought me out here and I had the most wonderful time of my life, Alex, I really did. It was the first time I felt truly free. And that’s what terrified me.”

“Henry, baby, we’ve been through this. You don’t need to apologise--”

“Alex, shut up.”

“Sorry.” Alex says, pulling back one hand to mime zipping his lips.

“Alex Claremont-Diaz. You terrify me. You terrified me when we were right here last year and I was so scared I ran away. You changed me, Alex. And I didn’t think I was ever capable of changing. I didn’t think I  _ wanted  _ to change. But I can’t imagine life without you anymore. 

Sneaking around the world to have sex with you was terrifying. Hiding in corners away from press cameras and interviewers was terrifying. And this past year, getting to be out there publicly with you by my side without hiding anything about ourselves was terrifying.”

Alex watches, his mouth open as he tries to imprint every second of this moment. Like an old VHS tape, he records over the old memories of this lake - the anxiety and the rejection - and he fills it with this. 

Whatever this may be. 

“Alex, you are the most terrifying man I have ever met in my life, but you are the only person I would ever trust to keep me safe. I love you, more than I ever thought I could; more than I ever thought I would be allowed. Last year you took me out to this lake to confess your feelings, and I ruined it. So this year…”

Henry takes his hand from the back of Alex’s head and suddenly he notices something he should have seen long before this moment. A silver ring, glinting beneath the moon, on his boyfriend’s finger. Henry twists it off and holds it into the air between them. 

“Alex Claremont-Diaz, will you marry me?”

And all Alex can do is stare. His mind runs and it races and he his mouth falls open wordlessly. All too similar to the year before, the cicadas and the wind and the lake fall into silence. Everything but his heartbeat in his ears.

Henry looks at him nervously.

“You… you don’t have to shut up anymore.” He jokes weakly when Alex still doesn’t make a sound. 

“Henry, I…” Alex says, just to prove that he does have the power of speech. He blinks, staring at the elegant engagement ring set between them in the summer air. “Yes.” He says, nodding furiously. “Yes, god… yes, baby, yes.” 

Alex falls into glorious laughter. His happiness cannot fit inside him, reaching the surface of the lake and spilling across the water for all to see. Henry takes his hand somewhere amidst his grinning and slips the band onto his finger.

It’s a perfect silver, a primarily simple design with tiny and unimposing diamonds set into the bottom edge. It doesn’t draw attention to itself, but once it’s noticed it’s impossible to look away. 

Henry clearly knows him too well. 

Alex grasps Henry’s face between his palms and pulls him fast against his lips. He feels strong arms wrap around his chest, squeezing him so tight he thinks he might break. But it’s impossible tonight. Alex feels indestructible, the ring on his finger a symbol of immortality. 

When they break, they’re breathless. Alex chases Henry’s grinning lips for more and Henry gives in almost too easily. It can’t last long, only so many romantics can be in play before someone requires oxygen but Alex makes it last as long as possible. 

“So…” Alex laughs into the crook of Henry’s neck where he comes to rest, his arms slung loosely around his shoulders. The water laps at their bodies tenderly, like a blanket. “Do I have to one up a proposal next year?” He asks, jokingly.

“If you can find a way.” Henry says, watching the lake house over Alex’s head. 

“I think the only announcement left would be a pregnancy.” Alex admits, pulling back to catch Henry’s gaze. He’s met with a quirked eyebrow. 

“If you can manage that then you win.” Henry laughs, stealing another kiss while he has the chance. 

“Yeah…” Alex mulls it over, “I think I secede.” He says.

“So, I win?”

“Is love really about winning?” 

“Well, you’re not supposed to say it is but… everyone knows that’s the true reason people get married.” Henry decides nodding.

“Glad you showed your true colours before the wedding day.” Alex says, smirking. 

Henry rolls his eyes and this time Alex kisses him while he’s off guard. They still again, Alex’s head finding Henry’s shoulder once more, their laughter stilling in the Texas night. 

“Thank you for saying yes, love.” Henry whispers into Alex’s damp hair. Alex smiles against Henry’s skin with a breath. 

“Couldn’t imagine saying anything else.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! If you want to leave a prompt/request then head to my Tumblr (absolute-worst-idea) and drop it into my ask. Otherwise, I hope you liked this and thank you for reading! 
> 
> Kudos and comments make my day! :D


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